Underwear



W. HURD Feb. 13,1940.

UNDERWEAR Filed March 4, 1939 INVENTOR 'WITNESSES William )[urcl 1 Patented Feb. 13, 1940 UNDERWEAR William Hui-d, Troy, N. Y., assignor to Wright's Underwear Company, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 4, 1939, Serial No. 259,755

2 Claims.

This invention relates to underwear and particularly to an improved supporting reinforcing member for the crotch of the underwear.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved construction of underwear whichincludes an arc-shaped structure for reinforcing the and arranged at or adjacent the crotch with the wales of the reinforcing member substantially parallel with the wales of the garment.

In the accompanying drawing- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a figure showin an undershirt and drawers, the drawers illustrating an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation on an enlarged scale of the upper part of the drawers shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 -is a sectional view through Fig. 2 on the line 1-3, the same being on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view through Fig. 5 on the line 4-4; Fig. 5 is a sectional view through Fig. 2 .on the line 5-5;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view showing the crotch portion of a union suit with an embodiment of the invention appliedthereto.

Referring to the accompanying drawing by numerals, lindicates an undershirt of any desired kind which forms no part of the present invention, while 2 indicates a pair of drawers disclosing an embodiment of the invention. The

' drawers 2 are shown more in detail in Fig. 2, and

it will be seen that. the same are provided with a body 3 merging into legs 4 and 5 and having a crotch piece 8. An elastic band I is connected to' the upper end of the body 3. In forming the body 3 a fly structure is provided by having the sections 8 and 9 overlap to a large extent but leaving an opening ill. Reinforcing tabs II and i2 are stitched in place on each side of the fly structure and, in fact, close the fly structure at points I! and II. The panels or overlapping sections 8 and 9 have their-lower ends connected 'together at II by a line of stitching it which is substantially U-shaped and which holds the crotch member 6 in place. Arranged adjacent the crotch member on each side thereof are reinforcing and supporting members l1 and I8 which are held in place by lines of stitching i9 and 20. I The lines of stitching l9 and form a U-shaped structure except at the upper part where theystop at the reinforcing members I l and I2. These lines of stitching support the arc-shaped members I! and-l8 in place, which members are 10 formed of knit material arranged with the wales extending longitudinally of the garment and the wales of the garment also extending longitudinally so that the wales of the different members are all substantially parallel. This allows a desired 16 lateral stretching or spreading without allowing any longitudinal stretching or spreading;

The garment may be made of pure wool yarn or of various proportions of wool, as'may be desired, but the; supporting and reinforcing memm bers I1 and iii are preferably formed of cotton, rayon, or the like, as the yarns of these materials are usually stronger than wool. Cotton knit' goods particularly is stronger when wet than woolen goods and, consequently, will hold the crotch member 6 and associated sections in correct position during the use of the garment. It is well known that garments made of wool when stretched when moist or wet will remain permanently stretched to a certain extent and will not return to their former condition. Where stretching of a wet piece of fabric takes place frequently the fabric elongates permanently or is deformed permanently. Cotton and certain other fabrics when wet are muchless deformable than wool and consequently it is preferable to use cotton or a similar less deformable fabric as members l1 and I8, soj-. that when strain is brought on the crotch portion of the garment it will not permanently stretch.

From Figs. 3 and 4 it will be observed that the members I! and I8 are arranged interiorly of the garment and-are held in place by the respective lines of stitching i6, i9 and 20.

It will also be noted that a reinforcing piece 5 I of textile fabric 6' is arranged interiorly of the crotch member 6 and is held in position by the same seams. Preferably the reinforcing member 6 is arranged so that the wales will be circum ferentially of the garment and parallel with the wales of the crotch member 6.

In Fig. 6 a slightly modified structure is shown wherein the respective members I! and I8 are associated with a union garment 2| instead of drawers. In this form of the invention the memu I the garment while the wales of the crotch piece are circumferentially, 'a knit reinforcing member coextensive with the crotch piece arranged in? teriorly thereof and positioned with the wales extending circumferentially of the garment, said reinforcing member being made of material less permanently deformable than wool when moist, and a knit arc-shaped reinforcing member on each side of said crotch piece, extending generally longitudinally of the garment with the wales substantially parallel to the Wales of said leg members, stitching along one edge of each of said arc-shaped reinforcing members for securing the same to said crotch piece and stitching along the opposite edge to secure said arc-shaped reinforcing members to the legs of the garment, said knit arc-shaped reinforcing member being made of material less permanently deformable than wool when moist,

2'. Textile woolen drawers having a bodv, an inserted crotch piece and leg members formed of knit fabric positioned so that the wales of the body and leg members extend substantially longitudinally of the garment, a crotch reinforcing member of knit'textile fabric formed of ma terial appreciably less permanently deformable than wool when moist, said crotch reinforcing member being arranged interiorly and underlying parts of said body and leg members positioned so that the wales will be substantially par- 7 allel to the wales of the drawers, said crotch- -reinforcing member being substantially U-shaped with the center part removed and two lines of stitching for securing the respective edges of the reinforcing member in position, the inner line of stitching being substantially a continuation of the inside seam of the drawers and acting to connect said crotch piece and inner edges of the crotch reinforcing member together and in functioning position in the garmentwhile the outer line of stitching is substantially arc-shaped and divided at the closed end of the U-shaped reinforcing member and acting to secure the outer edge of the U-shaped reinforcing member to,

parts of the body and leg members.v

WILLIAM HURD. 

